Susan Davis 5th-6th Language Arts FAQs St. Mark’s Episcopal School
What is the focus of the Language Arts curriculum?
The curriculum will focus on five key strands: reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and oral communication.
Our reading focus will encompass both independent reading, to inspire a love of reading and to spur personal growth, and collective reading experiences, to explore literary themes and genres and to enhance critical reading skills. Independent reading will be assessed in class discussions, informal writing, blogging, and discussion forums. Students frequently will be asked to make connections to their independent reading when we are learning other concepts in class.
Writing assignments will be both formal and informal. Students will share their responses to their independent reading and their research, respond to expository essay prompts, and experiment with creative expression in various genres. Students will also respond in writing to discussion prompts related to the literary texts chosen for group reading. Much of the writing done for this course will be done in class in the form of formal essays that develop through several drafts, blogs and online discussion forums, and impromptu writing essays or other writing assignments. It is important for students to see that writing is a process that develops over time. This means sharing drafts and editing for content, using structured peer review, whether online or on paper. Thus, writing essays or creative writing assignments that go through several drafts and revisions, as well as intensive individual scrutiny regarding proofreading, will be stressed, whether the writing is done in blogs or discussion forums, in formal, word-processed essays, or as impromptu, handwritten pieces in class or overnight in students’ composition notebooks (journals).
Grammar will be taught formally, using the English Workshop series along with other MS Language Arts classes, as well as in the context of students’ individual needs as they write. Similarly, vocabulary skills will be emphasized using the Wordskills series and incorporating just-in-time learning approaches as challenging vocabulary crops up in our reading or our discussions.
Oral communication will be emphasized throughout the course. Students will practice listening and speaking skills in the formal discourse of class discussions, negotiate ways to communicate effectively for collaboration in groups, present writing and research to the class, use video and audio to create podcasts, and participate in a performance of a dramatic work.
What is the role of technology in this course?
How students can learn best is the touchstone of my teaching philosophy.
As students engage in the process of learning almost anything today, technology of one sort or the other is usually involved. Much to my great delight, after the dark days of the 1990s when student interest in reading and writing lagged, recent studies have shown that students are reading and writing now more than they ever have, mostly on the Internet. So it makes sense to consider the environments in which young people already do these activities and will continue to do these activities as they prepare for careers we can’t even imagine. In addition, one of the notable changes in the way education has evolved in recent years has been a shift toward student-centered learning that is authentic in nature, that is, for a real purpose and a real audience. For both reasons, then, I seek to use current technologies whenever appropriate for facilitating students’ learning.
Every day I try to think about the best way to deliver a lesson or teach a concept or skill for today’s students. Sometimes that involves using the technology of the 21st century (a computer and an online resource or tool), sometimes that involves using a sixteenth-century device (a pencil), and sometimes that involves using a fifteenth-century technology (books made from moveable type). Technology doesn’t drive my teaching, student learning does.
Just as I teach grammar and vocabulary on an as-needed basis throughout the learning process, so too will I teach technology skills (such as digital literacy, online safety, effective search skills, etc.) as they pertain to teaching reading and writing to middle-schoolers. Likewise, new forms of writing, such as blogging, have come to dominate the way we communicate today. I believe that learning to write for the Internet as a part of our course of study is both more authentic and more vital for students to master as they enter this new age of content creation and sharing online.
What do discussion forums and blogging have to do with Language Arts?
Online discussion forums are a key means for teaching critical reading skills. Posting online responses will be part of our students’ education for many years to come. In my experience, many students who are quiet in class find this medium to be freeing as a way to express their ideas. Likewise, other students who are usually articulate in a face-to-face discussion often will struggle with this format, but in the process can gain much-needed skills for elaborating their ideas in writing. I will draw extensively upon my work as a teacher for CTYOnline (a program for gifted children run by Johns Hopkins University) this past summer, as well as my experience for the past twelve years, as I work with students to expand their critical reading skills. Writing and critical reading in an online format are finding their way into high school graduation requirements, and even now a growing number of students will take an online course before they graduate.
Blogging is writing. It takes many forms, addresses myriad topics, and can range in quality. Naturally, it is my goal to help students use blogs as a way to produce quality content that is worth reading, and to develop their skills and their thinking over time. Blogs allow students to do several things they can’t do as easily when they write using more traditional means. They can incorporate many forms of media, create links (make connections), and interact with one another in an ongoing conversation via comments. All of these things are critical 21st-century skills that students will need to master. That doesn’t mean that other writing skills are not stressed or taught, only that they have a new form in which to be expressed and to develop. Blogs also have the advantage of creating authentic writing experiences with real audiences, which provides motivation for students and raises the bar for their work.
As I have stated elsewhere, we have decided to have students blog in a closed environment on Edublogs as a start. Collaborize provides a similar environment for discussion forums. Comments, as they are moderated by me, provide an important means for helping students develop skills for communicating effectively and interacting appropriately and productively with one another.
Blogs and discussion posts, including comments, will be graded as I would grade any other piece of writing for my classes. Equally important, I will provide frequent feedback in writing and in person for student writing, whether it is shared privately online with students and parents or written on a typed or hand-written assignment.
Where can I find resources about the topics mentioned here?
Edutopia’s video library, “DigitalGeneration: Parents,” is a good place to start. If you want to understand the big picture of the impact of the digital transformations on the current generation (as well as the rest of us), you might also read Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus (on social media) and Jane McGonigal’s Reality Is Broken (on video games). If you want to try to keep up with the moving target of day-to-day digital parenting, I recommend Marti Weston’s information-packed, down-to-earth blog, Media! Tech! Parenting!
In addition, I have learned recently about another resource, A Platform for Good, that provides resources for and insight into working with today’s learners. I have also been asked to join the online community Quib.ly, which is forming even as I write this in order to meet the needs of parents and educators who are concerned about how students can best learn to interact safely and productively on the Internet.
What is the best way for me to address any questions that arise in the future?
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me via email or phone. I am happy to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress. I am also happy to add to this document and to post answers to questions on the course wiki (an evolving resource) as the year develops.
5th-6th Language Arts FAQs
St. Mark’s Episcopal School
What is the focus of the Language Arts curriculum?
The curriculum will focus on five key strands: reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and oral communication.
Our reading focus will encompass both independent reading, to inspire a love of reading and to spur personal growth, and collective reading experiences, to explore literary themes and genres and to enhance critical reading skills. Independent reading will be assessed in class discussions, informal writing, blogging, and discussion forums. Students frequently will be asked to make connections to their independent reading when we are learning other concepts in class.
Writing assignments will be both formal and informal. Students will share their responses to their independent reading and their research, respond to expository essay prompts, and experiment with creative expression in various genres. Students will also respond in writing to discussion prompts related to the literary texts chosen for group reading. Much of the writing done for this course will be done in class in the form of formal essays that develop through several drafts, blogs and online discussion forums, and impromptu writing essays or other writing assignments. It is important for students to see that writing is a process that develops over time. This means sharing drafts and editing for content, using structured peer review, whether online or on paper. Thus, writing essays or creative writing assignments that go through several drafts and revisions, as well as intensive individual scrutiny regarding proofreading, will be stressed, whether the writing is done in blogs or discussion forums, in formal, word-processed essays, or as impromptu, handwritten pieces in class or overnight in students’ composition notebooks (journals).
Grammar will be taught formally, using the English Workshop series along with other MS Language Arts classes, as well as in the context of students’ individual needs as they write. Similarly, vocabulary skills will be emphasized using the Wordskills series and incorporating just-in-time learning approaches as challenging vocabulary crops up in our reading or our discussions.
Oral communication will be emphasized throughout the course. Students will practice listening and speaking skills in the formal discourse of class discussions, negotiate ways to communicate effectively for collaboration in groups, present writing and research to the class, use video and audio to create podcasts, and participate in a performance of a dramatic work.
What is the role of technology in this course?
How students can learn best is the touchstone of my teaching philosophy.
As students engage in the process of learning almost anything today, technology of one sort or the other is usually involved. Much to my great delight, after the dark days of the 1990s when student interest in reading and writing lagged, recent studies have shown that students are reading and writing now more than they ever have, mostly on the Internet. So it makes sense to consider the environments in which young people already do these activities and will continue to do these activities as they prepare for careers we can’t even imagine. In addition, one of the notable changes in the way education has evolved in recent years has been a shift toward student-centered learning that is authentic in nature, that is, for a real purpose and a real audience. For both reasons, then, I seek to use current technologies whenever appropriate for facilitating students’ learning.
Every day I try to think about the best way to deliver a lesson or teach a concept or skill for today’s students. Sometimes that involves using the technology of the 21st century (a computer and an online resource or tool), sometimes that involves using a sixteenth-century device (a pencil), and sometimes that involves using a fifteenth-century technology (books made from moveable type). Technology doesn’t drive my teaching, student learning does.
Just as I teach grammar and vocabulary on an as-needed basis throughout the learning process, so too will I teach technology skills (such as digital literacy, online safety, effective search skills, etc.) as they pertain to teaching reading and writing to middle-schoolers. Likewise, new forms of writing, such as blogging, have come to dominate the way we communicate today. I believe that learning to write for the Internet as a part of our course of study is both more authentic and more vital for students to master as they enter this new age of content creation and sharing online.
What do discussion forums and blogging have to do with Language Arts?
Online discussion forums are a key means for teaching critical reading skills. Posting online responses will be part of our students’ education for many years to come. In my experience, many students who are quiet in class find this medium to be freeing as a way to express their ideas. Likewise, other students who are usually articulate in a face-to-face discussion often will struggle with this format, but in the process can gain much-needed skills for elaborating their ideas in writing. I will draw extensively upon my work as a teacher for CTYOnline (a program for gifted children run by Johns Hopkins University) this past summer, as well as my experience for the past twelve years, as I work with students to expand their critical reading skills. Writing and critical reading in an online format are finding their way into high school graduation requirements, and even now a growing number of students will take an online course before they graduate.
Blogging is writing. It takes many forms, addresses myriad topics, and can range in quality. Naturally, it is my goal to help students use blogs as a way to produce quality content that is worth reading, and to develop their skills and their thinking over time. Blogs allow students to do several things they can’t do as easily when they write using more traditional means. They can incorporate many forms of media, create links (make connections), and interact with one another in an ongoing conversation via comments. All of these things are critical 21st-century skills that students will need to master. That doesn’t mean that other writing skills are not stressed or taught, only that they have a new form in which to be expressed and to develop. Blogs also have the advantage of creating authentic writing experiences with real audiences, which provides motivation for students and raises the bar for their work.
As I have stated elsewhere, we have decided to have students blog in a closed environment on Edublogs as a start. Collaborize provides a similar environment for discussion forums. Comments, as they are moderated by me, provide an important means for helping students develop skills for communicating effectively and interacting appropriately and productively with one another.
Blogs and discussion posts, including comments, will be graded as I would grade any other piece of writing for my classes. Equally important, I will provide frequent feedback in writing and in person for student writing, whether it is shared privately online with students and parents or written on a typed or hand-written assignment.
Where can I find resources about the topics mentioned here?
Edutopia’s video library, “Digital Generation: Parents,” is a good place to start. If you want to understand the big picture of the impact of the digital transformations on the current generation (as well as the rest of us), you might also read Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus (on social media) and Jane McGonigal’s Reality Is Broken (on video games). If you want to try to keep up with the moving target of day-to-day digital parenting, I recommend Marti Weston’s information-packed, down-to-earth blog, Media! Tech! Parenting!
In addition, I have learned recently about another resource, A Platform for Good, that provides resources for and insight into working with today’s learners. I have also been asked to join the online community Quib.ly, which is forming even as I write this in order to meet the needs of parents and educators who are concerned about how students can best learn to interact safely and productively on the Internet.
What is the best way for me to address any questions that arise in the future?
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me via email or phone. I am happy to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress. I am also happy to add to this document and to post answers to questions on the course wiki (an evolving resource) as the year develops.
Susan Davis
sdavis@stmes.org